“This isn’t about Charlie Brown or Christmas, it’s about the separation of church and state,” Anne Orsi, the vice president The Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, said in her statement voicing opposition to the actions taken by the Terry Elementary School in Little Rock, Ark.

The school took students to a [stage] performance of “Merry Christmas Charlie Brown,” reinvigorating a debate between the pious and secular.

The school should not have taken the children to see this play, regardless of giving the option to attend. Not because it violates the Constitution or breaks freedom of religion, but because the state should not have any say in the spiritual or religious education of our children…

…While some parents might not mind a little Christianity in their children’s education, it would be wrong to insert a religious view into a public school, a place where diversity and impartialityshould exist.

But my big question is for the protesting group: Why is the ‘Arkansas Society of Freethinkers‘ (love that name, by the way) all flustered by school children potentially finding out what Christmas is actually about? After all, wouldn’t that fall under the heading of “teaching”?

It’s a fact that far too often our public schools fail to educate, instead seeking to inculcate…and they despise competition. BUT, I need to applaud the school in question here: it would have been all too easy for them to cave and choose not to attend the play. Big-time kudos to Terry Elementary School of Little Rock, AK, for daring to challenge the intolerant Left this time around.

—–

Of course, this isn’t a new fight. The producers of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” were against including the “offensive” speech prior to its first airing back in 1965.

The producers agreed to include a Nativity scene to represent Sparky’s feelings, but by the time the script was finished, (producer Lee) Mendelson realized he had included an entire minute-long speech directly from the New Testament. This led to the biggest arguments between [Charles Schulz] and the producers, with Mendelson insisting that the special was an “entertainment show” and the speech would scare off advertisers by narrowing its audience.

Obviously, the scene survived. In fact, Linus’s recitation was hailed by critics such as Harriet Van Horne of the New York World-Telegram who said, “Linus’ reading of the story of the Nativity was, quite simply, the dramatic highlight of the season.”

So, why the outcry? Why the continued, eternal attempts to marginalize even the most innocent references to this national holiday?

You’re going to get tired of me saying this (heck, I’M tired of saying it), but the answer is culture.

This whole hubbub is yet another example in the secularists battle to change Freedom-OF-Religion into Freedom-FROM-Religion, and it’s one of the primary fronts in our current Culture War.

Christmas has become a touchstone for our society. Does the mere mention of it offend you? If so, you’re probably a pompous, supercilious, arrogant, unreasonable jerk. Notice I didn’t say atheist, because I know of too many atheists (and Jews, etc.,..) who adore Christmas, including all of its religious implications. No, the sort of folks who get their panties in a twist over this are bent on destroying every last vestige of our historically conservative, Judeo-Christian culture.

And our answer to these attacks should be pretty simple: don’t apologize, and don’t back down.

Our history is what it is, and to deny our history is to deny ourselves. Honestly, that’s our biggest problem nowadays: we too often deny who we are. This is why my recent post of the speech by Bill Whittle is so important: we need to proudly, confidently pronounce what we believe as conservatives & Americans. Not in the negative, insulting and consistently nasty way that Progressives seem to do, but rather in the positive living of our lives, …which MUST include our media.

18 responses to “Charlie Brown, the War on Christmas, and what it means for the culture-at-large”

The entire Establishment Clause of the Constitution has been perverted to the level of the “right of privacy” reasoning in Roe v. Wade. Our Founders came from a land where the State sanctioned, sponsored, and DEMANDED obedience to ONE religion. Their OBVIOUS stated desire was to be sure that citizens in this new land were free to practice based on their own beliefs.

Justice Douglas summed it up very well, IMHO, in his opinion given in Zorach v Clauson:
“We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. We guarantee the freedom to worship as one chooses. We make room for as wide a variety of beliefs and creeds as the spiritual needs of man deem necessary. We sponsor an attitude on the part of government that shows no partiality to any one group and that lets each flourish according to the zeal of its adherents and the appeal of its dogma. When the state encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities by adjusting the schedule of public events to sectarian needs, it follows the best of our traditions. For it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs. To hold that it may not would be to find in the Constitution a requirement that the government show a callous indifference to religious groups.”

Right on, Pgh! I was unfamiliar with that quote, but I think I’ll be saving it for future use.

It’s a fact: the war IS real…and the fact that the Left seeks to deny it even exists reminds me of the line from The Usual Suspects:
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. “

Buddy….ONLY the Right can be “at war”, i.e., the “War on Women”, etc. The Left can NEVER be “at war”…..it goes against their pacifist leanings!

The irony to me is that I, personally, wouldn’t care if a town center had a Christmas display, a Star of David, or a Kwanzaa commemorative display (does anyone still do Kwanzaa?). WE are the citizens of the communities, states, and country we live in, and I have NO PROBLEM with people of other faiths practicing or displaying their beliefs. UNLESS, of course, those beliefs are manifested by flying planes into buildings.

Reblogged this on tannngl and commented:
I was going to blog on this subject but justturnright has done it so much better than I could. (as well as the comments!).
Christmas is a big part of the war on our culture in the US.

Reblogged to News of the Day. You’re right. We really need to more than resist, fight, in every skirmish in this cultural war. Christmas is a big part of this war.
Thanks for the Douglas quote, LivinRightinPGH.

Had another thought about this war on Christmas by the left.
I picked it up a few nights ago on O’Rielly.
Christmas is a federal holiday. Our federal government made Christmas a legal holiday. Might be a good defense when a town is defending their nativity?